At the beginning of the week, the media broke news about a strange cryptocurrency farm in Ukraine. In one of the warehouses of the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, 3,800 PS4 consoles were found, among other things. Originally it was believed that it was used for cryptocurrency mining.

At least this is reported by the Ukrainian Security Service, which is responsible for discovering the illegal mine. Already from the first information, many skeptics appeared. One of them was a journalist from the Ukrainian business newspaper Delo, who decided to take a closer look at the case.

The journalist, contrary to popular reports, determined that 3,800 PlayStation 4 consoles served as a bot farm in FIFA Ultimate Team in a warehouse in Vinnytsia. It does not change the fact that there is a prohibited activity, which is the illegal consumption of electricity. It is estimated that the losses amounted to 700-950 thousand PLN.

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Image source: © SBU

Where did the idea that this is not a cryptocurrency mine come from?

Services discovered 3,800 PlayStation 4 consoles in the Slim version, about 500 GPUs and 50 CPUs. It is possible that the graphics cards have already been used for cryptocurrency mining. However, in the case of the PS4 that would be illogical.

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The owner of the repository informed himself that he had nothing to do with cryptocurrency mining

The next day after the takeover of the repository, the company “Vinnitsaoblenergo” reported on the VKontakte website that the company had nothing to do with illegal activities, and that crypto-mining equipment had never worked on its premises. A Delo journalist called the owner of the magazine and asked for details. Unfortunately, he was unable to say anything due to the ongoing investigation.

However, an anonymous SBU source reported that “there was a well-organized settlement of bots on PlayStation, which they then sold.”

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